Archives for February 2015

This month we present a lightly edited excerpt from Chess Evolution Top GM Secrets Newsletter #156. Top GM Secrets is released every Friday of the week. The newsletter contains twenty-plus pages of great chess material written by top grandmasters Arkadij Naiditsch and Csaba Balogh, along with theoretical articles by GM Alexander Khalifman, puzzles, endgames, and more.
A Great Game by Anand!
By Csaba Balogh
Anand,Viswanathan (2797) - Aronian,Levon (2777)
4th Zurich CC Classical SUI (2.3), 15.02.2015
Gruenfeld Defence [D97]
Anand has a terrible personal score against Aronian, but in this game he takes a nice revenge. It would be very interesting to know how long his preparation … [Read more...]

Retro World IV: The Pre-existence of Being
By Jeff Coakley
Retrograde analysis is a form of logical reasoning in which past events are deduced from details in the present situation.
This column features six last move problems. The task is to determine the move or moves which led to the given position.
Before beginning our investigations, here are a few notes from The Chess Detective's Handbook, the classic work by resident Cafe sleuth Harmonius Hound.
When answering the question "What was the last move?", be as precise as possible. A complete description of a move includes the square a piece moved from, whether a capture was made, and if so, what type of piece was … [Read more...]

How to Play for a Win
By Bo Bredenhof
When I look into CC databases and search strong players (rating 2400+) the first move is almost always 1.e4 or 1.d4. I see a few openings with 1.c4 and 1.Nf3, but they almost always transposes to some 1.d4 variation. Why is this? I believe it has to do with initiative and the strong chess engines of today. Most long forced lines where White can keep the initiative begin with these moves. The one who deviates takes a risk and that is of course what the first player wants.
In my December chronicle I recommended a few alternative ways of opening a game. It was 1.f4, 1.Nf3+g3 and 1.c4+Nc3. All of these are defensive in character. With 1.f4 you play … [Read more...]

The Marshall - Jaffe 1909 Series:
Part Two
By John S. Hilbert
The fifth game was a fierce struggle with Marshall again sacrificing a piece, this time successfully: "Jaffe had the White pieces in a Queen's Pawn game, but Marshall instituted a violent attack at his earliest opportunity. Rather than retreat, Marshall sacrificed a bishop for two pawns, thereby jeopardizing his game, although he established a strong knight in hostile territory. With this the Brooklynite won the exchange, but was losing his grip somewhat when Jaffe resorted to an unsound counter combination, and was beaten after 55 moves." (BDE, February 8, 1909)
As with Game 4, which concluded Part I of this extended … [Read more...]

The Opposition Strikes Again!
By Bruce Pandolfini
"The opposition: what's that, the opponent?" How often I've heard students say something like that. Yet many experienced players use "the opposition" to mean something else. They use it to indicate a relationship between the two kings, especially in the endgame. If you "have the opposition," it's essentially the same thing as saying you have the advantage. For the most part, if on the same rank, file or diagonal, the kings "stand in opposition" if they (a) are on squares of the same color and (b) are separated by an odd number of squares. (This is not the place to bring up "the rectangular opposition," "the knight's jump opposition," or … [Read more...]

Inside Chess, 1989/9
Hungarian journalist and chessplayer Ladislas Lindner met the legendary Dr. Tartakower for the first time in the 1930s. So began a friendship between the two that was to last for decades. In telling the story, Mr. Lindner recreates the events and flavor of a time long past and shows the great Doctor to be a philosopher as well as a chessplayer.
My Memories of Tartakower
by Ladislas Lindner
When a devoted chess enthusiast is a journalist-and, as such, a chronicler of chess events, as I have been - then he feels that he owes a debt to posterity if he fails to share all his remembrances of the great players and the interesting events of his youth. During my youth, … [Read more...]

Rook Hooks and Queen Treks
By Jeff Coakley
Artist appreciation month continues with more "brain rackers" from British puzzle master Henry Dudeney (1857-1930).
As a prelude to the Dudeney conception that follows, here is a basic example of a series-mate.
1
Series-mate in seven
White plays seven moves
in a row to mate Black
Only the last move may give check.
Captures are allowed. White may not
place their own king in check. Black
does not get a turn.
The next puzzle is a version of a Dudeney work called "An Amazing Dilemma" from Amusements in Mathematics (1917).
2
Place the black king on the board so
that White does not have a series-mate
in any number of … [Read more...]

Rules for Blind and Visually Disabled Players
By Geurt Gijssen
Question: I recently served as deputy arbiter in the Central American Chess Team Championship for blind and disabled players; and I have some doubts about the special rules for blind people and their relationship with the Laws of Chess. I searched on the Internet, but I did not find any related topics, so I would appreciate your opinion about the issues in the questions below. FA Carolina Muñoz (Costa Rica)
Answer and Two Preliminary Remarks:
1. For twenty years I was chairman of the Rules Committee/Commission. Every time that we had the possibility to revise the Laws of Chess, and, of course, the Appendices as well, … [Read more...]

Improving Visualization
by Dan Heisman
Quote of the Month: “You can’t play what you don’t see.”
The quote of the month has been one of my more popular ones. GM Soltis used it in his book The Wisest Things Ever Said About Chess. A big attribute of this principle is that it has several helpful meanings:
If you don’t consider a move as a potential candidate, it can never be played,
If you do consider a move, but don’t notice its potential, you won’t consider it seriously,
If you don’t search for better candidate moves, you won’t find them, and
If you are analyzing and can’t visualize the board clearly, you can’t analyze well.
It’s this final interpretation that we want to … [Read more...]

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